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In the year 1868, a carriage accident had occurred which had been carrying a couple and their baby son. A thief named Dario Brando and his wife saw the crash and decided to steal whatever valuables there were from the corpses. The nobleman George Joestar had survived the crash, as did his son, but his wife had died. Thinking Dario had come to save him, George offered Dario a reward for his "help". Dario accepts the offer, and figures he could probably use it later.
Twelve years later, George is looking out from his balcony at his son, Jonathan Joestar, who had grown into a young man over the course of the years. Jonathan calls to his dog, Danny, and the two go running off to go adventuring.

In another setting, Dario Brando had overcome an illness, and asks his son, Dio Brando for assistance. Dio asks if he needs medicine, but Dario rebukes him by saying the only way for him to heal is through alcohol and asks Dio to fetch him some beer. Somewhere in the slums, Dio plays a game of chess with a rough looking man. Dio wins and asks the man for the money they had bet, but just after he drops the money the man pushes Dio's face into his food. Dio can only struggle as he grabs the money on the table.

In another area, two kids are bullying a small girl named Erina Pendleton by taking her doll. However, Jonathan intervenes and helps the girl. While he gets beaten up by the bullies, he's able to get the doll back. Erina attempts to thank Jonathan, but he refused claiming that he did not help her for her gratitude, but rather because he is training to become a true gentlemen, one who would help those in need. He runs off, but not before dropping his handkerchief.

Years later, Dario, on his death bed, tells his son, Dio, of a debt that a man owed him. He hands Dio a letter and tells him to go to the Joestar mansion to pay the debt. Not long afterwords, Dario dies and is buried. Dio is seen standing in front of his grave and as a "goodbye", Dio spits on the grave. Dio's hatred for his father aside from the poor treatment is presumably due to Dario having made his mother "suffer to death."

Soon after, Dio arrives at the Joestar mansion and meets Jonathan. Jonathan's dog, Danny, comes running towards them but, without a thought, Dio knees Danny in the jaw. Jonathan becomes enraged by this. Dio then thinks to himself that he now must destroy Jonathan mentally in order to gain the Joestar's wealth. Inside the house, Dio elbows Jonathan in the chest for attempting to help him with his luggage. Dio tells Jonathan that just because he is living in his house doesn't mean he can look down upon him. He won't let anyone swagger over him as he wants to be number one.

Since then, Dio has attempted to completely destroy Jonathan's social life. At home, he has gained George's favor, as he not only has better marks then Jonathan, but he shows much better table manners them him. Jonathan is distressed by this, but it only gets worse from there.

The next day, Jonathan is taking part in local boxing matches and is clearly the champ. The announcer introduces a new challenger, who turns out to be none other than Dio. Jonathan is completely unable to hit Dio, due to Dio's experience and agility from living in the slums. Dio punches Jonathan in the gut, and then quickly finishes him off with a jab to the face, followed by shoving his thumb into Jonathan's eye. Jonathan is defeated, and the audience surrounds Dio, who tells them that he'll gladly teach them his fighting moves, but only if they completely isolate Jonathan and not tell him anything.

Since then, nobody in the area includes Jonathan in their activities due to him being a "tattle-tale." Despite this, Jonathan meets up with Erina again, and the two quickly become friends, and eventually start going out. At one point, Jonathan is seen carving his and her name into a tree.

Soon after, Dio finds out about Jonathan's relationship and attempts to destroy that as well. As Erina is walking home one day, Dio appears and forcibly kisses her, knowing full well that he had stolen Erina's first kiss from Jonathan. Later on Jonathan finds out about this from Dio's peers and runs to the mansion to confront him.

Jonathan bursts through the front door and rushes toward Dio, stating he did not care what Dio did to him, but touching Erina had gone too far. Before Jonathan can throw a punch, Dio complies by ramming his elbow into Jonathan's face. Jonathan attempts to strike again, but Dio blocks and follows with a kick to Jonathan's side. Jonathan had actually used this moment to quickly grab Dio. Dio attempts to kick him again, but Jonathan headbutts him in the face. From there, he is able to dealt out a good couple of blows before finishing Dio off. Some of Dio's blood sprays onto the Stone Mask causing it to grow tentacles and fall to the floor. Dio attempts to pull out a knife, but George appears and tells them to stop and sends them both to their rooms.

The next day, one of the butlers is throwing away a basket of leaves. Upon opening the incinerator, he notices a large box in it and assumes one of the maids had thrown it away. He ignites the incinerator, but is stopped by what appears to banging sounds coming from inside the incinerator.

Jonathan, who had not been able to talk to Erina at all that day, comes home to find his dog buried. Apparently, Danny was the one inside the box and had burned to death. Jonathan instantly thinks of Dio, but the Butler claims that Dio had been at school the entire day.
Later that night, Dio is seen standing under a streetlight thinking to himself. He realizes he had underestimated Jonathan and needs to gain more self-control and keep his composure at all times. The stone mask is briefly shown before the episode ends.

The Aztec Ritual at the beginning wasn't shown in the anime, but is alluded to in the ending credits.

George mentions that he would have rewarded Dario with money if he had not lost his wallet. This wasn't in the anime.

Jonathan and Dio nearly fight in the anime after Danny is kicked, only to be interrupted by George. This is not in the manga, where it cuts to inside the mansion.

In the anime, one of the bullies states that he doesn't have a grudge against rich people, but doesn't like people like the Joestars. In the manga, he says he hates all rich people.

There is a scene after Jonathan is dismissed from the table due to bad table manners, where he is crying in his bed. A picture of his mother is shown above his bed. Jonathan then eats the chocolate found at his bedside. This is cut from the anime.

There was a manga only scene before the boxing match between Dio and Jonathan that involved Dio gambling all of his allowance on the fight.

Dio tells the crowd of people not to tell Jonathan his fighting techniques, but in the manga he tells them not to tell Jonathan how to make his homemade firework.

A short scene where Jonathan's watch is "borrowed" by Dio before meeting up with his friends and Jonathan being told this by Dio is not in the anime.

The scene where Dio discusses with George about the Stone Mask, the writing inside, and how George got it is not shown in the anime.

Originally, Jonathan was smoking a pipe in the tree, while in the anime he is just sitting.

Jonathan briefly fights the group of boys who accuse him of being a snitch. In the anime, they simply run away.

Jonathan's dates with Erina and them relaxing in a lake and discussing frogs are condensed in the anime to only being shown.

The entire flashback of how Jonathan met Danny and how Danny saved Jonathan's life when he was 5 wasn't shown in the anime.

Jonathan is not hit in the head by a thrown stone before being told why Erina's avoiding him in the anime.

In the manga, the butler opens the incinerator and Danny jumps out from it on fire. It was only revealed that Danny was in the incinerator when Jonathan got home, in the anime.

The anime cuts out a few short scenes where Jonathan scares away a crow before seeing Erina walking past and Jonathan hitting the tree in anger, when Jonathan is walking home and talking about how depressed he is, and when he gets home and the butler apologizes, instead cutting to Jonathan at Danny's grave.

The anime mentions Jonathan crying at Danny's death, but does not show him directly in bed, only showing him in the sheets.

Dio thinking about how he must be calm and how he underestimated Jonathan is shown as nighttime in the anime, but daytime in the manga.